Farewell, Maggie Smith: Hook and Harry Potter actress passes away at 89

Very popular with all generations, the British actress toured until the end of her life.

This is sad news that fans of Harry Potter feared to see the emergence, just like those of Room with a view, Indian Palace Or Downton Abbey. Maggie Smith just died, announcement Variety. She was 89 years old.

Since the 90's and her incarnation of Wendy in Hook by Steven Spielberg, she was a bit like our cinema grandmother. Although she was only 57 years old at the time of filming – her aging makeup was exceptional – her tender relationship with Peter Pan (Robin Williams) was able to move the public. Over the years, his comforting presence in multiple projects intended for all audiences had given him a special place in the hearts of fans of cinema and the small screen. With the culmination of her incarnation of Minerva McGonagall throughout the family saga taken from the novels of JK Rowling, in the shoes of a model of justice and rigor for Harry Potter.

Maggie Smith in 1966 and in 2023, on the set of her penultimate film, The Miracle Club.

Born December 28, 1934 in Ilford, Margaret Smith is one of the most famous British actresses. One of the most talented, too, from her youth. From the start of her acting career, she opted for the first name “Maggie”. After starting out on the stage, she turned to the seventh art at the age of 24. The young actress stars in the film for the first time The Criminal at Bay (Nowhere to go)in 1958. At 32, she was already nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Othello. It was then necessary to wait until 1970 for her to win her first statuette, for Best Actress for The good years by Miss Brodie, in which she plays a teacher with avant-garde methods during the 1930s.

Maggie Smith then won the Oscar for best supporting actress, as well as the Golden Globe, for comedy-drama thanks to California Hotel (in 1978, the year of the great success of the adaptation of Death on the Nileby Agatha Christie). In Room with a view by James Ivory, 1986, she played for the first time with a long-time friend, Judi Dench, and obtained another nomination. Finally, in 2006, his role in Gosford Park by Robert Altman earned him a final selection at the Oscars.

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Attacking the general public

In 1992, the year in which Maggie Smith starred under the direction of Steven Spielberg in Hook or the revenge of Captain Hook, we also see it in Sister Act by Emile Ardolino, then Judi Dench plays alongside him again in Tea with Mussolini by Franco Zeffirelli, in 1999. Two years later, she joined the saga Harry Potter from the first minutes of The Sorcerer's Schoolby Chris Columbus. She will return as Professor McGonagall throughout the saga, undoubtedly the most famous role of her long career.

Simultaneously multiplying appearances in all kinds of British projects, in 2010, she found Emma Thompson – aka Sibylle Trelawney in Harry Potter – for the second film around the adventures of Nanny McPhee. She then caused a sensation by joining the cast of the British mini-series Downton Abbey. Her portrayal of the Countess of Grantham earned her an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress for a Miniseries in 2011, although she later admitted to having been relieved that the series ended…”If we had continued, what would I have gotten? 110 years? It wouldn't have made much sense.”she said, laughing shortly after the end of her broadcast.

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A dense career

In 2011, the end of the franchise Harry Potter did not mark the end of his career, far from it. Subsequently, for example, she played in the first film directed by Dustin Hoffman, Quartet. She also finds Judi Dench in the film Indian Palace directed by John Madden, and its sequel in 2015, two new popular hits. Throughout her career, Maggie Smith has also never stopped wearing out the stages of the most prestigious London theaters. The Shakespeare plays that she did not perform are rare. She also collaborated with the most prestigious directors, from Ingmar Bergman to Laurence Olivier, including Orson Welles, Noel Coward, Peter Wood and Robin Philips. More recently, she performed in the theater under the direction of Anthony Page. Thanks to her long career and her status as an ambassador of British culture, Maggie Smith is a Member of the Order of the British Empire at the rank of Lady Commandersince 2014.

Throughout her life, Maggie Smith never hid her health problems, explaining for example in the late 1980s that she had to undergo radiotherapy to treat an eye disease. When she learned that she was suffering from breast cancer in 2007, she spoke about it publicly, and agreed to film the last episodes of Harry Potter with a wig and schedules arranged so that she can rest as much as possible. She ultimately never stopped her acting career, starring in the second part of the films Downton Abbey in 2022, then in The Miracle Club And A German Lifevery recently. Last year, she was also chosen to represent luxury bag brand Loewe, posing for a series of photos.

They are his children, the actors Chris Larkin (Master and Commander, Outlander…) and Toby Stephens (at the heart of the series Lost in space) who announced his death this afternoon to the English-speaking media. They specify that she is dead “peacefully”.

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